Believe it or not, you can click on ANY LOCAL MUSICIAN'S NAME (around 4,500 musicos listed!) and bring up bios of every notable band they've ever been in! Try it here withRob Crow ---

AND, if that wasn't cool 'nuff, click on an instrument, say like this here link to "Drums" - BAM, a list of EVERY DRUMMER IN SAN DIEGO!!!

We've been working on this massively cross-linked Local Music Database for over two years now, covering a century of San Diego history --- if you're a local performer who wants to add or edit a page, go to http://www.sandiegoreader.com/band/edit/

Pink Froyd and the Pink Floyd Experience are both fronted by 53-year-old guitarist Tom Quinn, with each band usually featuring the same local players. “Almost all the members are full-time musicians,” says Quinn. “The Pink Floyd Experience does three to five tours per year, for up to seven weeks at a time, all over North America and Canada, while Pink Froyd mainly plays locally, including our annual performance of the entire Wall album.” Members John Staten and Jesse Molloy also play in the band On the One.

“Our first gig was in 1995,” says Quinn, who was inspired to form the groups after seeing the real Pink Floyd at Jack Murphy Stadium in April ’94. “If I wasn’t playing Pink Floyd covers, I can’t imagine me doing any other tribute.”

Musically, Quinn says, “We start with re-creation and always play the ‘signature’ licks. Fans, musicians, and even nonmusicians know these songs inside and out. If we take a diversion, it’s based on something that Floyd themselves played during their 40-year concert career.”

Now among SoCal’s busiest tribute acts, Quinn says the band didn’t always Shine On. “In the early days of Pink Froyd, we played one night at a sleazy joint in L.A. called FM Station Live, with four other bands. We made $44 for the entire band, played a 22-minute set, and the curtain came down right in the middle of my solo in ‘Pigs.’ Gig over, NEXT!”

Asked whether he’s ever met his Floydian twin, the surrogate bandleader says, “Not exactly, but back in April 2006, I got eight feet away from David Gilmour at the Jay Leno show in Burbank.”

Related link

"Borrowed Fame" - Cover story 3-19-09: Some musicians see tribute groups as a way to get a foot in the door of the music industry. Others have been on the other side of that door, only to find more closed doors. Copping someone else’s successful act may seem the only chance at earning a bit of applause, adulation, and -- ultimately -- affirmation, however secondhand. (click for more Cover Story: "Borrowed Music. Borrowed Look. Borrowed Fame." )

“We had so many bad experiences in L.A.” says Tyler Monks, whose band JuneNine has been enjoying U.K. airplay on BBC, Vox, and Kerrang Radio. “Stolen cars, homicides, alcoholic producers, one and a half-hour commutes, roommates with poor hygiene…I decided I was done with L.A. and moved to San Diego, to enjoy a lifestyle free of traffic, parking tickets, and pollution.”

“L.A. is intoxicating,” says Monks, “and the buzz of the music biz is undeniable, but you really have to spend time in L.A. to network. That’s the one thing San Diego lacks; well-connected industry people. San Diegans have a healthier lifestyle, though.”

Dave Madden’s path to OceanBeach wasn’t paved until after spending 25 years with L.A. Doors tribute band Wild Child.

“I lived in Los Feliz, across the street from GriffithPark,” says Madden. “Madonna and Gwen Stefani had houses up the hill from me, and I would frequently run into and shoot the sh-t with Beck on my walks through SilverLake.”

So why quit the successful band he co-founded and move to OB? “If you’re already disposed to having an addictive personality, it will eventually catch up to you,” he says. “After two stints in rehab, I found myself in the hospital…I had complete organ failure, fell into a two-week coma, was diagnosed with double pneumonia, and I flatlined three times. To this day, my doctors have no clue why I didn’t die.”

“It’s a theatrical production using lasers, strobes, blacklights, fog machines, and everything you’d expect to see at 1970s concert,” he says of the show, which opens for his former band Wild Child at the Ramona Mainstage on May 22. “It’s a lot less stressful, with a lot less temptations, than touring the world with ‘Jim Morrison.’”

Starting June 28th, That '70s Rock Show hits the stage every Sunday at Winstons in OB.

Related links

“I’ve heard too many stories of kids who are saving their money for their dream Fender Stratocaster or Gibson Les Paul, only to find out later they’ve been burned by a cheap fake,” says guitarist David Szabados. “Counterfeit instruments are being produced in China and Korea, and then sold off here as the real thing by unscrupulous sellers on places like eBay, Craigslist, local storefronts, and pawn shops.”

“I just did searched ‘Gibson Les Paul new’ on the San Diego Musicians Craigslist,” he says, “and right away found one that was certainly questionable, due to the location of the volume and tone knobs.” Szabados mentions other ways of distinguishing fakes, including whether inlays are real or painted on, and number of neck bolts.

“Many fake Gibsons have their pickup cavities painted black inside,” he says of one commonly bootlegged axe. “The counterfeit organizations sell in bulk, ten guitars at a time, shipped direct from China or Korea, and then the purchaser resells them locally…pawn shops might sell them as the real thing without even realizing, [since] they have no expertise, so someone ends up paying $1,000 or more for a guitar that only cost $150.”

To illustrate his point, Szabados created a video called “Destroying a $5,000 Guitar” for his LegendaryTones.com website. “We smashed a counterfeit PRS, complete with Paul Reed Smith logo on the headstock, bird inlays, and other signature PRS details. The guitar came out of a factory in Korea, and looks real enough that people are really shocked to see us destroy it…it seems like a good way to raise awareness.”

At this writing, http://www.zxcmusic.com posts several guitars evincing known bootleg earmarks, advertised as authentic, such as an Epiphone Ace Frehley signature model (normally retailing for $1,000 but selling for $259), as well as a Slash Les Paul Gold Top (missing headstock logo) and a left-handed Zakk Wilde signature edition Gibson (minus legit factory inlay).

One dead giveaway seen in Craigslist ads purporting to be local is a tendency toward foreign-sounding text, as in the suspicious Gibson Les Paul pitch; “Wish we can cooperate happily with and possible do more business in future waiting for you do good news.”

Related link

Thursday 7 | The Devil Makes Three is a drummer-less trio from Santa Cruz that beats punk'd acoustic blues out of two guits and a stand-up bass. And don't let "drummer-less" fool you because "the rhythm is ... More

Q: How would you describe what you do? A: "Curator and devotee of experimental, classical, electronic, and improvised music," says Bonnie Wright. Since 1995, when she opened the doors to the Spruce Street Forum, Wright ... More

A couple of years ago, when the Shins were just getting ready to release their third album, Wincing the Night Away, lead Shin James Mercer told Pitchfork, "One thing I worry about is that Malcolm ... More

Will an unruly punk show end live music at the Jumping Turtle? Sheriff's deputy Sgt. Glenn Antonio said every patrol car assigned to San Marcos the night of Saturday, April 18, was called to the ... More

"Every gig we're surprised by someone who looks like a vocal outcast but who burns the mike," says Pickford's Party drummer Eric Ganci, whose band plays live behind amateur singers at Rock Out Karaoke. "We ... More

"Sugar," by Josh Damigo and Rob Deez, was the most downloaded MP3 from SDReader.com during the month of April. Follows is an interview with the duo. Sounds as if you've got a Jack Johnson-meets-spoken-word style ... More

Industrial-arts programs were important to Bob Taylor and Greg Deering when they were growing up in San Diego. It was during woodshop classes they made their first instruments: Taylor made his first guitar in his ... More

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WHAT I’M LISTENING TO...

I came across the MySpace page for local punk rockers The Bugs/Dangerous Dave- all their songs clock in at around one and a half minutes, but my favorite was "Dave Navarro's Goatee F-cking Sucks," which made me fall off my chair laughing! There's a terrific video, with shots of Navarro that hopefully won't get the band sued. I was so inspired, I created a 45 single sleeve for the tune ----

So I finally watched one of the new Futurama movies, Bender's Game - I was falling down laughing ---

"Eat the wizard

eat the slut

eat the robot's shiny butt!"

The Scary Door/Twilight Zone bit rocked - there were a buncha Scruffy cameos, but my favorite was when I spotted him cleaning up centaur poop. Not sher how many people "get" the Mork attack (the creatures all quote Robin Williams punchlines from the old Mork and Mindy TV show), but I almost bust a gut with this one:

Lela: Is that a hobbit?

Farnsworth: No, it's just a hobo and a rabbit. But they're MAKING a hobbit....

My face hurts again just from typing it ------

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RATT VS JUAN CROCIER’S DIRTY RATS

Former Rattman Juan Crocier has said he wants nothing to do with the newest Ratt partial-reunion – instead, he has his own rodent posse, Dirty Rats.

He posts “As most of you may know, we went out and played a few shows in early March. The shows were a lot of fun. Carlos Cavazo is back in the band (Ratt, ex-Quiet Riot). We're going out again this summer, so far we have July 16th, 17th and 18th booked and continue to book more shows.”

“We will soon be offering Dirty Rat shirts on Juancroucier.com so be looking out for those. I’ll be working on the Dirty Rats website in the coming months and getting that up to speed. We may also be opening The Cellar Message Board at Juancroucier.com again. I’m going back into the studio this summer to begin recording my next record.”

In summer 2007, Ratt partially reunited its classic lineup, with Stephen Pearcy, Warren DeMartini, and Bobby Blotzer. The late Robbin Crosby was replaced by guitaristt John Corabi. Ratt bassist Juan Crocier refused to participate, so he was replaced by Robbie Crane (from Vince Neil's band).

“The original band broke up fifteen years ago and there have been several questionable incarnations of it since then,” blogged former Ratt bassist Juan Croucier on his MySpace page last year. He said he wouldn’t participate in the current Ratt reunion tour with Pearcy.

“There has not been a sincere attempt at redemption by my former band mates, for their insidious and sometimes malicious wrongdoings in the past, toward me,” said. “Near the end of negotiations, ulterior motives prevailed and I was eventually simply stonewalled… their ignorant and unscrupulous habits came into focus once again; a stark reminder of our tumultuous and dysfunctional past.”

(Croucier then & now)

The “reunion” tour also featured Poison (insert your own rat poison joke here). Among the reactions to the announcement on Blabbermouth.com at the time:

ANOTHER HARD ROCK HOTEL NIGHTCLUB OPERATOR LAWSUIT - this time for sexual harrassment

Mr. Cindy Crawford – aka Rande Gerber, whose company ran Moonstone Lounge and Sweetwater Saloon at the Hard Rock Hotel - is being sued for sexual harrassment by two women who worked at the Moonstone.

UPI reports: Shelly Scott and Gillian Walker allege in their suit filed in San Diego Count Superior Court in March that they both endured sexual harassment while working at the Gerber Group's Moonstone Lounge, TMZ.com reported Friday.

The women allege they lost their waitress jobs after refusing the sexual advances of staff members, including Gerber.

One of the women alleges Gerber attempted to kiss her and reach under her dress on one occasion in 2008, E! Online said.

Gerber is ALSO being sued over club operators allegedly roughing up patrons. As of Thursday, February 5, both bars are locked up, around 150 people have no job to go to, and the Hard Rock has announced that it severed its partnership with Gerber.

In a written statement, Hard Rock Hotel owners Tarsadia Hotels referenced “the wrongful conduct of some of the Gerber Group employees” and said the lawsuit seeking damages was filed “arising from their wrongful conduct.”

“In order to protect hotel guests and patrons, and the reputation of Hard Rock Hotel San Diego, Tarsadia was left with no alternative but to proceed with the termination of the agreement…Tarsadia Hotels has a zero tolerance of illegal and wrongful conduct, and has made every reasonable effort to have the Gerber Group correct the defaults.”

47 year-old Gerber operates a chain of venues called Midnight Oil, alongside his brothers Scott and Kenny, as the Gerber Group. Best known for the Whiskey chain of venues launched around 16 years ago, their website declares the company to be “pre-eminent tastemakers, with an uncanny ability to create chic, seductive bars with modern glamour that reflect the times and national moods.”

Gerber co-designed the Sweetwater Saloon on the main floor of downtown’s Hard Rock Hotel, as well as the Moonstone Lounge rooftop pool bar. Both opened in late 2007, with a splashy party covered attended by Rande Gerber with his supermodel wife Cindy Crawford (with whom he has two children), as well as Ashlee Simpson, and Pete Wentz.

“When I look at [San Diego],” he told San Diego Magazine, “it feels like Miami did years ago, with the vitality and anticipation to take off…it’s exciting to be part of a city with such spirit and people who are ready to shake it up a bit.”

Gerber told Riviera Magazine “San Diego just seemed like a great place because the people are really friendly, like to have a good time, and they drink…I look forward to spending more time in San Diego, and I plan to keep opening new spots.”

San Diego, you’ve been warned……

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CATHRYN BEEKS’ WEEKLY LISTEN LOCAL HOTSHEET

Link of the Week:The North Park Music Thing is still accepting bands for San Diego's own version of SXSW, which happens the weekend of August 7-9th. All artists interested in performing must submit their music and an online promotional package, along with a $15 submission fee online via Sonic Bids. Apply NOW here. If you would prefer to send a package by regular mail, please click here for the performers application. Please send the registration form along with a non-refundable $25 submission fee to: North Park Music Thing, c/o San Diego Music Foundation, 4876 Mount Royal Place, San Diego, CA 92117. Promo packages, CD, DVDs etc will NOT be returned. Selected artists will be notified no later than July 1, 2009 if they have been selected to perform.

SATURDAY MAY 9TH: Besides being my Dad's birthday, May 9th offers a ton of great shows... how is one to decide?!? 1. The Shady Side Players release their new CD in Encinitas at a private party and you're invited, Go here for info. 2. The Christopher Dale Trio house concert happens email Carol for info or reservations. 3. Carlos Olmeda plays Swedeborg Hall, go here for info. Happy birthday Dad, and I'll see you on Sunday, MOM!

Don't miss Kristen Cusato this weekend, turn on Channel 9 at 9am for news and music. She's got John Miller and The Paybacks on Saturday and Josh Damigo on Sunday.

Congratulations to Rick, aka Mountain Ghost who won recording time at Berkley Sound after wowing us all last night with his song written to the title COME TO FIND OUT. Steve from Snooze Button won the gift certificate and Charlie and Carl tied for third favorite songs. Good times. The next Game is June 4th - the song title will be announced in next week's music mail. Write a song to that title, show up to play it, and WIN!

People aren't the only ones who've got rhythm. Two reports published online on April 30th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, reveal that birds – and parrots in particular – can also bob their heads, tap their feet, and sway their bodies along to a musical beat. The findings show that a very basic aspect of the human response to music is shared with other species, according to the researchers.

"We've discovered a cockatoo [named Snowball] that dances to the beat of human music," said Aniruddh Patel of The Neurosciences Institute in San Diego, lead author of one of the studies. "Using a controlled experiment, we've shown that if the music speeds up or slows down across a wide range, he adjusts the tempo of his dancing to stay synchronized to the beat." One of Snowball's favorite dancing tunes is none other than the Backstreet Boys' "Everybody."

"For a long time, people have thought that the ability to move to a beat was unique to humans," added Adena Schachner of Harvard University, who led the other study. "After all, there is no convincing evidence that our closest relatives, chimpanzees and other apes, can keep a beat, and there is similarly no evidence that our pet dogs and cats can line up their actions with a musical beat, in spite of extensive experience with humans. In this work, however, we found that entrainment [to music] is not uniquely human; we find strong evidence for it in birds, specifically in parrots."

Before this discovery, "scientists who studied music and the brain thought that moving to a musical beat might be a uniquely human ability because we don't commonly see other animals moving rhythmically to music," Patel agreed. In fact, as far as they know, birds in the wild don't move in time with sounds, leaving many scientists to think that this ability might be an evolutionary specialization of the human brain for music cognition.

But that may not be so, the new studies suggest. They now suspect that the parrots' ability can be traced to another capacity they share with people: vocal learning or mimicry.

Indeed, Schachner's group searched YouTube for videos of dancing animals. Of more than 1,000 videos that turned up, only those of vocal mimics – representing 14 parrot species and one species of elephant – showed evidence that they could really get into the groove. That result is in keeping with the notion, first proposed by Patel, that entrainment to a musical beat relies on the neural circuitry for complex vocal learning, which requires a tight link between auditory and motor circuits in the brain, they said.

"A natural question about these results is whether they generalize to other parrots, or more broadly, to other vocal-learning species," including songbirds, dolphins, elephants, and pinnipeds, a group including walruses and seals, Patel said.

The findings in birds also offer new insight into humans' relationship to music.

"Why humans produce and enjoy music is an evolutionary puzzle," Schachner's team wrote. "Although many theories have been proposed, little empirical evidence speaks to the issue. In particular, debate continues over the idea that the human music capacity was not selected for directly, but arose as the byproduct of other cognitive mechanisms. By supporting the idea that entrainment emerged as a byproduct of vocal mimicry in avian species, the current findings lend plausibility to the idea that the human entrainment capacity evolved as a byproduct of our capacity for vocal mimicry."

Professor John Hildebrand, a blue whale expert at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UCSD, has studied recordings of whales “singing” since the 1960s. He says the whales’ rhythmic underwater moaning, which often sounds musical, is becoming lower and deeper. “This is giving us an insight into the culture of blue whales, as they are clearly listening to each other’s songs and changing them,” he told the UK’s Sunday Telegraph. “It takes a conscious decision to make the calls deeper, so it is a reflection of what is going on in the population.”

According to Hildebrand, whale calls used to average 22Hz, whereas today the frequency is around 15Hz. “These animals have a finite lung capacity, so their songs are a trade off between frequency and volume. They can either make the song really loud, or really deep.” Most researchers think whale songs are intended to attract mates, or to communicate to others during the mating season.

The world’s largest animals, whales are enjoying a population growth, thanks to protections put in place after many species were nearly wiped out. It’s estimated that there are currently around 4,500 blue whales. “As their numbers have slowly increased after the devastation caused by whaling,” says Hildebrand, “they are having to communicate over smaller distances. So their songs don't need to be as loud, and they can make them deeper."

Those interested in hearing songs of the blue whale can find hundreds of recordings at the UCSD Sound Library.

Professor David Rothernberg, of the New Jersey Institute of Technology, says he communicates with whales through musical instruments mic’d to hydrophones. His book Thousand Mile Song describes underwater “jam sessions” he’s enjoyed with humpback whales.

“For me,” he told telegraph.co.uk, “I felt like they could recognise the music I was making and were responding to that. There was a very special interaction with a humpback, and he seemed to change his song so that, by the end, it was hard to tell which was the clarinet and which was the whale.”

The whales apparently respect and respond to musical innovation, being enraptured by and then mimicking any Beatles-like whales among them who come up with a new tune AND a new way of “singing” and performing it. “These are incredibly social animals, and they seem to change their songs regularly. When one of them innovates, this gets picked up by the rest of the population, and then they all start singing in the same way.”

“‘What Do All the People Know’ was a fun song, and I still enjoy listening to it,” says Rusty Jones, whose San Diego band the Monroes toured with Rick Springfield, Toto, and Greg Kihn in the early ’80s. At their one-hit-wonder peak, the Monroes performed their best-known single on The Merv Griffin Show.

“Tell me am I getting in too deep,

every night I’m talking in my sleep.

Lately I am so confused,

I really don’t know what to do.”

("What Do All The People Know")

“Sometimes we were a really great band, too,” says Jones. “But, sadly, fighting through the fragile egos and drug problems, just to play my music, became too much…Bob [Davis, bassist] and Eric [Denton, keyboardist] are just not my friends, musically or otherwise.”

“And when I called you on the phone,

you said that I could be the one.

But here I’m standing all alone,

and you’re out lyin’ in the sun.”

("What Do All The People Know")

Referring to a Reader website feature on Denton, who later founded Guitar Trader, Jones says, “Nowhere does it mention that I wrote at least half of the songs the Monroes performed and recorded. I know that my songwriting and musicianship played a huge role in getting the band signed because people were constantly trying to lure me away. After I left, what happened? Where are all the memorable Denton-Monroe tunes?”

“They’ve constantly bothered me through the years to do a reunion. Bob has asked me to write with him many times. If I was such a side player, why not just reunite with a different guitar player?”

From 1987 through 1994, Bob Davis AKA Bobby Monroe played in a local band called Street Heart - pictured below (left to right) is Bobby Monroe, Bob Sale, Tom Quinn, and Denny Bales. These folks also played with Eve Selis, the Heroes, and the Siers Bros Band. Street Heart almost always included "What Do All the People Know" in their setlists.

Today, Rusty Jones often performs around North County with Monroes singer Jesus Ortiz, and he’s also reconnected with Monroes drummer Jonnie Gilstrap.

EARLIEST AMBITION?

“When I was really young, I wanted to be a stand-up comic like George Burns, Jack Benny, and Johnny Carson. Come out in a tuxedo and some prop like a cigar or a violin or a golf club and just tell jokes. Music came a little later for me.”

DESCRIBE YOUR CURRENT MUSIC.…

“It’s roots music with a twist. I mash up the blues, pop, Motown, rock, and folk, processing it all through the blender of my heart and soul and forcing it out through voice and guitar.”

MOST-PLAYED CDs?

1. Steely Dan, Aja. “Every song is perfect! After all these years, the lyrics still send my imagination flying, and the musicianship is crystalline. Funny…back in the day I was such a hard-core rocker, I used to crumb on Steely Dan so much. I thought they were too slick.”

2. Louis Prima, The Call of the Wildest. “Prima is so underrated. He fused Dixieland jazz, Italian popular music, rhythm and blues, and ’50s pop music into these peppy three-minute songs. Keely Smith’s voice still gives me goose bumps.”

3. Anoushka Shankar, Breathing Under Water. “It’s sensual, hypnotic, and eclectic music; great for the car. She plays sitar like a demon and, well, she’s hot!”

FAVORITE LINE FROM SPINAL TAP?

“Pretty much every word the bass player says.”

ANY UNTOLD BACKSTAGE MONROES STORIES?

“Chip, the stage manager for the Rick Springfield tour, came to see us at the Spirit Club. He says, ‘This is my friend Neil — he came down with me to check you guys out.’ I shake hands with this tall, skinny guy who’s holding a longneck Bud as if it’s not his first of the evening. Neil says, ‘Hey, you guys were great, man. I really like the sound.’ So I say thanks very much, and I blow him off to go find my girlfriend. Later, our manager comes to me all in a tizzy, asking, ‘What did Neil say? What did you tell him? Did he like the band? Why is he here?’ That was Neil Young!”

WHAT WOULD YOU DO WITH THE POWER TO READ MINDS?

“We all think we have these secrets nobody knows about — so many of us are so filled with this weird guilt and shame. I guess I would try to say to people, ‘Go ahead and share.’ The stuff you’re scared to reveal is what resonates for others. It shows you’re alive and aware.”

HOW DO YOU LIKE THE NEW PREZ SO FAR?

“I like him a lot! He has a real, functioning, and healthy brain, and when he smiles, what I see is sincerity. I’m sure there’s the dangerous big ego in there too, and we always have to watch these guys very carefully, but I think we have a really good one this time.”

3)Umm, “Groovy” is the only description that can be applied to this great clip of Gary Puckett and Nancy Sinatra performing “Beggar/Spinnin Wheel” on a late sixties TV show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jIyXV7i8EE

13) After moving to San Diego in 1959, folk/blues legend Judy Henske got her start in Pacific Beach Coffeehouses- Here is an AMAZING clip of her performing “Wade in the Water” in a circus big top circa 1962: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKjkUPzui7A

14) From the days when videos had story lines and actors even, here is NorthCounty’s country singer Juice Newton and her 1982 comedy video for “Love’s Been A Little Bit Hard On Me” on Capitol Records. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPlRcoYj32c

16) This one of Rosie Hamlin (of the Originals) is of a more recent vintage – there are no original clips circulating. She has been ill in recent years and no longer tours. This video of “Angel Baby” is from a 2002 PBS Special. Her voice is still great – she gets a standing ovation at the end.

17) Barbara Mandrell was Miss Oceanside and had a family band in the area before becoming one of the biggest selling country star of all time. Here’s a clip of how she started out, and playing steel guitar as well:

19) The only band from San Diego to rate their own edition of “Behind The Music”?RATT! Here’s the original video for mega-hit “Round & Round” and yes, it has a Milton Berle cameo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5gMeXz2YMw

20) Yes, it’s Chicago performing “25 or 6 to 4” on the Tonight Show, but recognize the lead vocalist/bassist? It’s Jason Sheff of Point Loma! He is nothing short of phenomenal ! He sang lead on all the band’s later hits…

21) No vintage clips of Greg Douglass with The Steve Miller Band or Greg Kihn etc have surfaced yet, but here’s a cute video for “Jungle Love” made from clips for the animated “Tarzan” film. They did a good job of matching ups scenes and lyrics, it sort of makes sense:- )http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6dezBbhW6o

23) The Beat Farmers on Late Night withDavid Letterman! Joey Harris, Dan McLain and Jerry Raney backed by Will Lee, Paul Shaffer and Anton Fig! They sing “Hideaway,” but make sure to watch at 4:20 when Mr. Letterman begins to pontificate on the band – sheer genius and the highest compliment possible!

24) Not too many artists from San Diego scored hits during the 80's, but here is one that did – Private Domain, live in 1984 , with “Absolute Perfection.” A bit lo-fi, but this is for history’s sake! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICMV8RhjDhk

Ratt, Bon Jovi, Kingdom Come and Britney Fox tackle "It's All Over Now" live in Japan, New Years Eve 1989. Most of these guys just seem to wander the stage aimlessly, though Pearcy takes the second verse; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnMrlnzpURQ

ALSO, courtesy Wayne Riker:

Local band Stone's Throw being introduced as the opening act at the 1984 Oylympic Village concert series in Los Angeles, playing the Cats & The Fiddle's "We Cats Will Swing For You":

Stone's Throw was a San Diego treasure for more than a decade between the mid '70s to '80s. They were a perennial winner of the "Best Vintage Jazz" category in The Reader's annual music awards. "With the other category winners, we got to play a composite concert each year at the La Paloma Theatre," says guitarist Wayne Riker. "The most recent Entertainer's Awards Concert I have listed in my little red book was on April 21st,1985, hosted by Larry Himmel at the La Paloma."

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WHAT I DRINK AND WHERE I DRINK IT

I missed the deadline for this week's cover story, but here 'tis -----

Okay, let’s get one thing straight --- I don’t like hippies. Never had any use for them.

They don’t particularly offend me, other than maybe the ones who tend to reek of patchouli, bongwater, and Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap (“It makes my balls tingle”), but that’s usually just my nose taking offense. I simply find hippies naïve, annoying, unproductive, grandiose, simpleminded, undereducated, overmedicated, out of touch with reality, and just generally useless.

That’s not even factoring in counterculture couture reminiscent of Sid and Marty Krofft after taking the brown acid at Woodstock.

So you can imagine how annoying it is to be mistaken for a hippie.

Yeah, I haven’t cut my hair since the Carter administration. And my sideburns are probably older than you. But my reasons for cultivating a full-body beard– unrelated to the matter at hand – have nothing to do with Granola, hemp, blacklights, flower power, Geodesic domes, biodiesel fuel, tree hugging, the I Ching, the Strawberry Alarm Clock, making a statement, waving a freak flag, giving it to “the Man,” or Jerry Garcia’s effin half-finger.

So why do I keep finding my ass polishing the Pabst-soaked seats at Winstons in OB, surrounded by the very tie-dyed and squinty-eyed I nearly despise, a pair of Italian loafers lost in a sea of Birkenstocks, an Izod amidst pajama tops?

It’s Winstons’ killer White Russians, with ‘tenders who almost always pour a stiff two-parts Kahlúa. A lot of places will plop a weak-ass chocolate milk down in front of you, mildly stirred with some dollar-store Kahlúa copycat like Kamora, Kapali, or some other Krap. Winstons uses the real deal, and with real cream, mind you, not that gawdawful two percent, half-and-half, or (gag) skim milk they dump on you at airports and in Hell (and at airports IN Hell, which seem a near-certainly if one believes in eternal damnation).

Yeah, it’s kind of a foofoo drink. What can I say – I acquired a taste for it over the course of countless Tijuana trawls, stumbling through stygian underground infernos like El Pato, where one had to leap a sewage moat to use the restroom and the walls seemed to bleed urine.

(I once brought a visiting friend from rural New Hampshire to El Pato; as we made our way down the damp and uneven steps, past the doorman with one leg and two teeth, my friend asked me “Dude, am I on Scare Tactics?”)

Winstons is surely a far safer - and more hygienic - place to whet my furry whistle. In addition, I’ve picked up enough patron chatter at Winstons for at least two dozen Overheard in San Diego comics, and I’ve jotted down dozens more I never got around to drawing. Fer instance:

“My dad thinks I stole his bong.”

“I want to invest in incense.”

“The only thing that matters is mind over matter.”

“Your poncho smells like lentils.”

“My other bike has a banana seat.”

“I only use organic douche.”

“It makes my balls tingle”

And the immortal “Dude! Trails!”

Plus, great bands play at Winstons, most every night. Well, as long as you avoid the Deadheads who live up to that deceptively descriptive term to a nearly forensic degree (is any head deader than a Deadhead’s?).

So that’s where – for now – you can usually find me, marinating in Kahlúa and avoiding some looming eleventh hour Reader deadline.

At least until the lure of TJ draws me back once again to the Zona Norte, to some gawdforsaken dungeon of the damned where I can almost guarantee my spent, abused, astonishingly scarred but nonetheless enviable corpse will someday be found ----

Related links

"Where Have All The Deadheads Gone?" Local flower children, after the head Deadhead was dead.

There are times, sometimes in the midst of otherwise polite conversation, when it comes out that I make my living writing for the Reader.... More

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GETCHER FIX OF UPCOMING LOCAL-CENTRIC COMPILATION ALBUMS

(hey, they can't all have catchy column titles.....)

Local Taang Records is releasing compilations collecting the music of Oakland hardcore band Attitude Adjustment and ‘80s horror-rockers Kilslug. “We have deals with Fontana Records, which sells a lot of our releases in stores, and we have European [distribution] deals as well,” says Davit Buck at the long-lived label, which has put out around 200 releases since 1984. ‘Vinyl is the big thing for us right now…we sell a lot of limited edition collector’s records.”

Buck (who also plays with The Homeless Sexuals) says there are many untold Tales of Taang waiting to be told. “Shane MacGowan [of the Pogues] was doing rehab at the Mission Beach Taang,” says Buck, who also alleges that the 2000 movie High Fidelity was modeled after Taang’s retail record shop. “They came into the L.A. store for weeks, and I’m sure they based the movie’s top ten stuff on Curtis [Casella, owner]. That’s how he interviews employees, he makes them list their top ten movies and albums and then decides whether to hire them from that.”

Chuck Schiele’s compilation of Ocean Beach-based performers, Waves, is set for a June release. “Everybody knows the jam band thing has a pretty strong foothold here,” says the Grams frontman and operator of StudiOB. “I work counter to that. We have more music energy in OB than any other neighborhood [in San Diego]. My role here has been to encourage every kind of music, and this compilation will be emblematic of that, with something for everybody.” A record release party will be held in conjunction with summer’s Ocean Beach Street Fair.

Local Blindspot Records just released Do You Want to Be in the Show: A Tribute to the Jetset, the second in their series of compilation albums co-produced with Twist Records in the UK. “The Jetset was an excellent British band in the mid-eighties, with great pop songwriting that really shifted gears in their five album run,” says label honcho BartMendoza.

The Jetset has several connections to San Diego. “Key members had multiple extended visits to our city during the mid eighties, playing New Sounds and other local gigs, as well as using San Diego as a base for a few gigs up north.” Locals on the album include Mendoza’s band The Shambles, as well as the Spring Collection.

“Most indie artists don’t even make the chart,” says Blame One, whose self-released Days Chasing Days charted at number 39 on iTunes’ Best Selling Hip-Hop Albums in early April. At the time, nobody seemed more surprised than the 34 year-old Carlsbad advertising executive.

“I rap about living a normal life, raising two children and being a husband,” says Blame One, aka Jahson Rutkowki. “The challenge is trying to balance my home and 9-to 5-life with my music. Most younger artists don’t need to worry about raising a family at the same time.”

Though no gangsta rapper,

Rutkowki bristles at being lumped in with so-called whole-hop (wholesome hip-hop) or whitebread rap. “Not everything I say is something I would want my son and daughter to hear, because they’re not at an appropriate age to soak it all in, for what it is. I listen to underground and gangsta hip-hop music…most cats can relate to a person that is truthful, regardless of what genre they’re placed in.”

Asked about the local hip-hop scene, he says “The biggest problem is lack of understanding. When people hear ‘hip-hop,’ it’s always linked with negativity and violence. [Instead], we put our skills to the test. We focus on art, turntable tactics, dance, and microphone mastery, as opposed to violence. But most of San Diego has no idea of the difference between the two. Especially in the media.”

Blame One moved to Vista in 1987 and formed the rock band Mystery's Extinction a few years later; that band split in 1999.

In late March of 2008, he was a MySpace featured artist, as well as being named Chairman’s Choice in XXL, one of the most widely distributed hip-hop magazines in the U.S.

Days Chasing Days was executive produced by DJ Exile, who has collaborated with and championed Rutkowki for years.

“We’re looking for local bands to play the Bondi Bar every other Wednesday night, where Shindy.TV will shoot its internet TV show,” says production manager Brad Hurvitz. Though performers aren’t paid, “We provide them with professional video footage in exchange for their performance,” according to Hurvitz. “The price that bands normally get paid to perform is significantly less than the cost of making these videos.”

Launched in 2007, Shindy.TV hired Hurvitz around 8 months ago. “Running this event is the extent of my local music background,” he says, “though I’ve had some excellent guidance from a few friends, and I feel very much a part of the local music scene.”

How will Hurvitz find locals willing to swap sets for footage? “I find the majority of bands on MySpace. I start off at a random band’s page, give them a listen, decide whether they would be the right type of band to play…and either contact them or move on. I find the next band through their friends [list].”

As for “the right type of band,” that’s apparently not punk. “San Diego has been known as a punk-style city. Granted, we do have a lot of punk here, but we should not be labeled as a punk-only city.”

Performers are also being sought for last minute fill-ins. “If a band backs out last minute, on the off chance that the guitarist breaks his hand by tripping over a box of Cheez-its on the way to get a midnight snack, [we’ll need] a couple bands that would be interested in a last minute switcheroo.”

If ever a group was destined to have a volatile line-up, it was Mission: To Mars. The concept was to bring together front-men of several different local groups to see what the musical collaboration might yield. In the end the group lasted less than a year, but still recorded an album and a handful of outtakes, as well as several rehearsal tapes and films.

The first line-up consisted of that trio, plus bassist Billy Lovcki (The Cables), though other commitments saw him exit after only a few weeks.

Troubadour Gregory Page soon took his place (switching to guitar for his own tunes) and the group spent several evenings in December 2000 rehearsing for their live debut: opening for Superdrag on January 1, 2001, at Brick by Brick.

Mission: to Mars was always planned to be a side project, which almost surely proved the main reason behind its speedy demise.

The Rarities were a project that grew out of acoustic collaborations between Derek Duplessie (Desert Poets),BartMendoza (Manual Scan, The Shambles, True Stories)andDylan Martinez (Static Halo, Rookie Card, Broken Dial Radio).Though still a high school student, Duplessie was a music veteran with several albums to his credit, as well as a 2000 appearance on television’s To Tell The Truth. His 12-string guitar was the key element to the bands sound, a mix of rock and folk influences.

The Rarities can be briefly seen rehearsing outside of San Diego nightclub, Dizzy’s, in the documentary, Why We Listen. A full concert set was filmed atLestat's for a proposed KPBS-TV program. The band split when Duplessie left for college.

THE DAY BEACH BOY BRIAN WILSON GOT BUSTED IN BALBOA PARK: In June 1978, Brian Wilson - without telling his wife or fellow bandmembers - decided (inexplicably) to escape his life entirely and hitchhike to Mexico. He wound up in San Diego a few days later, mentally fogged, barefoot, and unwashed. “He was on a binge," according to Stephen Love, brother of Beach Boy Mike Love and sometime-band manager..... http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/18/the-day-beach-boy-brian-wilson-got-busted

WHY MEXICANS HATED ELVIS: May 1959: While Elvis Presley’s popularity in the U.S. was arguably at its all-time peak, Mexico was in the midst of a huge anti-Elvis backlash. Tijuana tabloids called him a racist and homosexual, after the singer reportedly told gossip columnist Federico de León "I'd rather kiss three black girls than a Mexican." A Mexican woman in the same column was quoted saying "I'd rather kiss three dogs than one Elvis Presley”..... http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/13/why-mexicans-hated-elvis-plus-celeb-sighting/

Undercover Chronicles 3 – I Was An Undercover Concert Crasher - Not that we advocate lawbreaking, mind you, but it was a long time ago, and most of the places are long gone, so here's what I did and how I did it....

"Before It Was The Gaslamp: Balboa's Last Stand" - Cover story 6-21-07: In the late 70s/early 80s, I worked at downtown San Diego's grindhouse all-night movie theaters, for the owner of the Pussycat Theatre chain, Vince Miranda - this detailed feature recalls those dayz, the death of the Balboa Theatre, etc.

"Battle Of The Peeps" - feature article about a weird gig I had in the mid-'80s, running a strip club called Jolar, for the nation's second biggest pornographer, Harry Mohney (Deja Vu Showgirls founder).

"Pussycat Theaters - When 'Cathouses Ruled California" -- for the first time, the detailed inside story of the west coast Pussycat Theater chain of adult moviehouses, which peaked in the '70s but later died out. Told by those who actually ran the theaters!